OVERNIGHT DEFENSE: Senate report reignites torture debate

One of the key issues for those on both sides of the torture
debate is whether the enhanced interrogation provided information that led to
the killing of 9/11 terrorist Osama bin Laden.

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Some Republicans and intelligence officials argue that the
president wouldn’t have been able to order the bin Laden killing without the
intelligence the techniques produced.

But Feinstein said earlier this year that suggestions “the
operation was carried out based on information gained through the harsh
treatment of CIA detainees” was inaccurate.

Afghan SITREP: With
less than two years to go until all U.S. combat troops are out of Afghanistan,
DOD's latest
war report to Congress paints a challenging outlook for the country heading
into the White House's 2014 deadline.

Insurgent attacks by Taliban forces have increased
countrywide despite the Obama administration's decision to surge more than 30,000
troops into country three years ago, according to the DOD report. In 2009, the
number of Taliban attacks peaked at just over 2,500 that year. Three years
later, attacks against U.S. and coalition troops topped out at nearly 3,500 in
June, the report states.

While Afghan National Security Forces are taking on a large
number of combat operations on their own, only a "small percentage"
of Afghan units are able to operate completely independent of U.S. support, a
DOD official said Monday. U.S. efforts to get Taliban fighters to lay down
their arms and ally themselves to the Afghan government has also dropped off significantly,
with three of the four regional commands in Afghanistan posting drops in
"reintegrated" Taliban fighters, according to the report.

However, DOD officials explained that the analysis contained
in the report, known as the Section 1230 report after the legislative language
in the 2008 defense bill that mandated it, did not mean Washington's strategy
to hand off control to Kabul by 2014 was offtrack.

On the increased violence, DOD officials said the attacks
were evidence the Taliban and other insurgent groups are fighting back hard
to regain territory lost during the 2009 surge. Moreover, U.S., Afghan and
allied forces have been able to maintain security gains in the country's major
cities, like Kabul, Kandahar and Jalalabad, and within many of Afghanistan's
most densely populated areas, according to officials who spoke on the condition
of anonymity.

With Taliban reintegration, DOD officials claimed the report
did not reflect the numbers of Taliban fighters who had gone through informal
reintegration, where they agree to stop fighting but do not go through the
formal reintegration process.

Despite those explanations, lawmakers remained concerned
that Afghanistan will slide down the slippery slope of sectarian violence now
taking place in Iraq, where U.S. forces withdrew only a year ago. DOD officials
admitted Monday's report did highlight the challenges facing Kabul and
Washington in the run-up to 2014, but those challenges are "what we would
expected right now," said DOD officials.

House moves to
conference Tuesday: The House on Tuesday evening will pass a motion to go
to conference and instruct conferees on the defense authorization bill.

The motion will start the formal process on the
authorization bill’s conference committee, which has been worked on at the
staff level since before the election.

The Senate passed the Pentagon policy bill last week, and
both the House and Senate Armed Services committees are looking to quickly wrap
up the conference to get the final bill passed.

Aides say that the committee won’t likely approve the final
report until early next week.

Neither side sees any issues halting the conference
committee, but the defense bill has a number of contentious issues, including
the handling of terror detainees, the military’s use of biofuels and social
issues within the military.

Iraq backtrack: On
Monday, the Pentagon denied reports that thousands of U.S. troops were heading
back into Iraq as part of the Pentagon's efforts to keep tabs on Syria's
chemical weapons stockpiles.

State-run Iranian news outlet Press TV reported that 3,000
U.S. troops had arrived in Iraq, with 17,000 more headed to the Gulf nation, as
DOD weighs its options on how to respond should Syrian President Bashar Assad
unleash his chemical weapons stockpiles against rebel forces fighting to
overthrow the longtime leader.

But DOD spokesman Lt. Col. Wesley Miller told The Hill on
Monday he was
unaware of any information indicating that additional American forces have
been sent to Iraq for any reason.

"Our [troop] numbers have been
fairly stable at about 200 military personnel since December 2011," Miller
said, noting those 200 troops have been assigned to Office of Security
Cooperation-Iraq (OSC-I) since 2011.

All U.S. combat forces were withdrawn from Iraq last
December. Aside from the handful of American forces at OSC-I, Washington and
Baghdad could not reach an agreement on a postwar American force for the
country.

That decision has resulted in a tenuous security situation
in Iraq, punctuated by rampant sectarian violence that threatens to tear the
nation apart, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) told the Hill last Tuesday.

Sen. Inouye
hospitalized: Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) is in
the hospital as his doctors are monitoring his oxygen intake, the senator said
in a statement Monday.

“For the most part, I am OK,” said Inouye, who is also
chairman of the Defense Appropriations subcommittee.

“However, I am currently working with my doctors to regulate
my oxygen intake,” he said. “Much to my frustration, while undergoing this
process, I have to remain in the hospital for my own safety and to allow the
necessary observation. I will be back on the Hill as soon as my doctors allow
it. Thank you all for the kind words and continued support.”

Ayotte is speaking on the future of defense
spending Tuesday hosted by Concerned Veterans for American and the Weekly Standard. Wednesday she’ll appear
at the American Enterprise Institute to talk about national security, Benghazi
and the "fiscal cliff."